Suchergebnisse

This article compares a variety of modes of quantifying individuals to govern them. The analytical grid issues from a former research program on the Politics of Statistics that focused on one of these modes of governing by numbers, the statistical nation state, which is here included in an array of more recently developed governing numbers based on benchmarking, digital tracking, or self-quantifying. Three main operations differentiate modes of governing by numbers: measuring individuals for quantification, taking political measures accordingly to guide their behaviors, and an intermediate operation that is often less visible although situated between the two previous ones and needed to link them: evaluating the situation through a measured judgment that justifies the monitoring based on numbers. This analysis breaks down data into the sequential steps of the transformations chain of information formats needed to pass from an individual person to a governing figure. The plurality of modes of evaluation, and its reduction by quantification, is given high significance, as well as the way each mode of governing affects individuals, their identity and their possibility to critically reflect and question.

In this report we describe the circumstances surrounding an outbreak of mass hysteria among first year female university students. The outbreak was precipitated by a state of panic over the possibility of a fire which turned out to be harmless fumes from a locally used burning perfume. Twenty-three cases presented to the emergency room with symptoms of respiratory distress associated with marked emotional reactions. The outbreak was controlled by separating the patients, and the lack of media coverage facilitated this process. Cases with persistent and severe symptoms were those having physical and psychological problems prior to the occurrence of the outbreak. Individual vulnerability factors deserve special consideration in the management of mass hysteria since they are likely to influence the response to treatment.

Translated articles published in the NEW MASSES and titled "¿Es el petróleo más denso que la sangre?" y "El petróleo para uno y uno para el petróleo" [Is Oil denser than blood? and Oil to One and One to Oil]. The latter article was written by Howard Brubaker arguing the evident oil interests above the interests of the nation and the American imperialist trends in Nicaragua. / Traducciones de artículos publicados en el NEW MASSES intitulados "¿Es el petróleo más denso que la sangre?" y "El petróleo para uno y uno para el petróleo", este último de Howard Brubaker, en los que se argumenta la preeminencia de los intereses petroleros por sobre los intereses de una nación y sobre las tendencias imperialistas norteamericanas en Nicaragua.